The Best Valentine's Day Gift
by stay-awhile-and-listen
Summary: Sometimes the best gift is a perfectly ordinary day.


Harry and Ginny fanfiction for Valentines Day 2019  
This is my first story, please be nice.

Ginny found Harry alone in the library studying.

"Harry, I need some of your blood." She decided not to beat around the bush. She was just going to go for broke. After all, there's only so many ways to get someone's blood, and none that she could think of were particularly subtle.

"Why?" Harry asked, looking up with a frown on his face.

"I just do. For a… thing I'm working on." A blush rose to her face. Drat! This was really the first time in a while that she had talked to him, and maybe that crush hadn't disappeared as completely as she thought. Well, at all, if she was going to be honest with herself, and she had decided long ago that she wasn't. "I promise it isn't bad. It won't harm you, and the effects will only last for a little while."

Harry considered this. Ginny Weasley wasn't a Dark Lord, and given their history and his implicit trust of her, she could have probably asked to borrow his soul and he would have agreed. He stared into her brown eyes, noticing the blush rising in her cheeks, but she didn't flinch or look away.

"Okay. How much do you need?"

It was that easy? Just like that? The most famous wizard, offering her his blood? Didn't he know what someone could do with it if they got ahold of it? It wasn't supposed to be this easy! And already he had conjured up a glass vial and was pricking his finger.

"Um, just a few drops…" Ginny trailed off.

Harry squirted a few drops, and then a few more "for good measure" into the vial, before corking it and sealing it with magic. "Just don't let the twins get ahold of this, I'm not sure what sort of havoc they would wreck with it".

Ginny nodded in thanks, and walked away.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Hey Ron, could you meet me in the common room tomorrow morning before breakfast? And can you make sure Harry isn't with you?" Ginny asked her youngest brother.

"Sure Ginny, why don't you want Harry to be here?"

"Can I tell you tomorrow?"

"Sure."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Thanks for meeting us" Ginny said to Ron the next morning as he me Ginny and Hermione in the common room.

"Sure, why did you need me?" Ron asked

"Can you drink this?"

"What is it?"

"You know how Harry hates Valentines day? It's a surprise for him." Ron didn't look convinced, and worse, Hermione was eyeing her suspiciously. If she was being honest, her answer wasn't really an answer either.

"Please?" She was practically begging "I worked hard on his gift, it won't hurt you, or him. I'm taking it too."

"But you won't tell me what it does?" he prompted

"No. Not until tomorrow. If I tell you today, it will ruin it."

"Will he appreciate it?" Ron asked his sister.

"Yes" She said with absolute certainty in her voice. If nothing else, both Ron and Hermione picked up on her conviction that this was for Harry, and not for the crush she definitely still didn't have on Harry.

"Here's to my best mate" he said, raising the glass as if he were making a toast. "Bottoms up." Ron swallowed the glass in one go. Hermione looked at pearly liquid in the goblet a second longer, before downing it too.

"Thanks guys" Ginny said after downing her goblet. "I promise that I'll explain tomorrow morning".

Hermione sniffed the goblet before adding "That didn't taste bad Ginny. And it reminds me of… flowers, brooms, and Treacle Tart?"

Ginny wasn't sure where the flower smell had come from, but at least the hard part of the day was over. Now, all she had to do was wait.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

-"Harrykins" Fred – or perhaps George – cornered Harry as he came down the steps from his dormitory.

-"The black haired sheep of the family"

-"Figuratively speaking, of course"

-"would you be so kind as to try this wonderful little piece of candy?"

-"You see, being the figurative black haired sheep of the family just isn't working for us."

-"And we were thinking that we need to make you the literal black haired sheep."

"Okay"

-"Don't let our reputation precede us, this won't hurt a- what did you say?"

"I said OK. I'll try it."

George – or maybe it was Fred – looked gob smacked. Not that the other one was looking any less shocked.

"What's the worst that can happen, right? I mean, it's already Valentines day" said Harry, wondering not for the first time, what it might have been like to have someone love him.

"Too true"

Harry popped the candy into his mouth and chewed. There was a pop, and where Harry had been standing was a large black haired llama with green eyes and knobby knees. It looked down towards the ground, and then inspected its legs. The llama's upper lip curled into what could only be considered a feral grin.

"Mwaaa!" The noise that the llama made silenced the Gryffindor common room. "Mwaa" Harry the black llama yelled again.

"Harrykins, I think we made a mistake somewhere"

-"You're definitely not a sheep"

The Llama reached its head forward and started chewing on one of the twins orange hair.

"Geroff"

Harry made sure that the twins hair was nice and wet and covered in slobber, before bending down and nipping at the other twins' sleeve until it too was soaked through with slobber.

Finally, after torturing the twins enough, while the entire common room looked on with laughter, Harry the Llama walked over to where Ron and Hermione were sitting and picked his back up in his mouth. He gave them a pointed look, before trotting toward the door.

"Should we tell him that pets aren't allowed in the hallways?" Hermione wondered aloud

"He's your pet, not mine" Ron finished.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Granger, why do you have a pet llama with you?" Professor McGonagall's sharp voice stopped the trio just outside of the library. "Pets are absolutely not allowed in the hallways, and unless I'm much mistaken llamas aren't even an approved pet".

"Please, professor", Hermione started "He's not our pet".

The llama mwa'd again, this time clearly in anger. Ron looked between the professor and Harry for a long second before his face lit up.

"Professor, that's Harry, not a llama. Err, I mean it is a llama, but it's also Harry. You see the twins, they uh… they did something to him, and now he's a llama. It should wear off soon though. I hope."

Professor McGonagall peered into the llamas eyes, noticing how green they were.

"I see. And where were you taking your pet llama to?" She asked the duo

"Actually professor, he was leading us" Hermione offered.

"Ahh yes, one of my star pupils being led around by a llama." Her mouth turned up into what might be a grin. "Carry on". She scratched Harry the llama behind his ears, and walked away. The Harry the Llama's upper lip turned up into a grin.

In front of the library, they ran into Ginny.

"Hi guys" she said as she approached. "What's with the llama?" She started petting the llama, who let made a very loud orgle sound.

"That's the now literal black haired sheep of the family, courtesy of our twin brothers" Ron explained. "At least, he was supposed to be a sheep, but they messed up somewhere."

"That's Harry?" Ginny said in shock. Then, looking at the llama's knees and eyes, shrugged "I guess it is. Hi Harry. What's it like being a llama?"

The llama just orgled again, and put its head back under Ginny's hand.

"I guess he likes when you pet him" Hermione laughed.

Suddenly there was a pop, and where Harry the Llama had been, was now just a somewhat confused looking Harry sitting on the floor, with the strap of his bag in his mouth.

"Don't stop" he prompted, putting his head back under Ginny's hand. "Feels good…"

"C'mon Harry, we need to work on that potions homework for Snape still" Hermione grabbed his one hand while Ron grabbed his other, and together they pulled him to his feet.

"Bye Harry!" Ginny called as she continued to the Gryffindor tower.

Harry couldn't concentrate. Instead of doing his potions essay, all he could think about was how normal Ginny had been acting around him all day. The lion in his chest was curled up and wondering when exactly she had gotten over him. Another part of him was questioning why he cared, and another little bit of his mind was wondering exactly when he started liking his best mate's little sister at all. Oh well, he thought to himself, at least he didn't spend Valentines day with Cho this year.

Hermione was as patient as ever, even if Harry was slightly more distracted than usual, and together the three of them completed their essays to turn in to Professor Snape the next day.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"So, Ginny", Hermione asked immediately as she sat down for breakfast the next morning "what exactly was in that goblet you gave us?"

"What goblet?" Harry the no-longer-llama asked

"She gaff us a gooblet yefterday" Ron said with his mouth full.

"She wouldn't say what was in it, just that it was important that we take it." Hermione finished, with decidedly better table manners.

"It was a variation of Amortentia" Ginny explained. "This one actually creates love-"

"Hold on" Hermione interrupted "amortentia can't do that. It can only create lust."

"If used as a love potion, yes. But this variant I found creates the sort of love you have for family members, it's not sexual, so nobody really thinks about using it anymore. But, we thought that Harry was our actual brother yesterday. You me, Ron, and Harry were all siblings."

"But I didn't feel any different" Ron said

Harry had a blank look on his face, Ginny wasn't exactly sure what to make of it but she continued anyway. In for a sickle, in for a galleon she figured.

"Harry, I know you're always wondering what it's like having a family that loves you. Yesterday, we were your family. Happy belated Valentines day". Her face was turning red by this point, but having nothing left to say she picked at a piece of bacon on her plate.

Harry took a moment to mentally catalogue his interactions with his three friends the previous day: Ginny had been decidedly less red that she was right now, even going as far as to scratch behind his ears while he was a llama… in fact she was quite normal around him. His two best friends hadn't changed one bit. His adopted sister was just that, his sister. His best mate's family had adopted him in some time ago, but he had evidently not he realized just how close that bond had become, since Ron hadn't displayed and differences either. His blank expression slowly turned into one of appreciation than finally a smile. "Really Ginny? That's brilliant! That's positively amazing!"

"You're welcome Harry." She said shyly.

"What about the twins?" he asked suddenly, just now realizing that they had in-fact, tried to turn him into the literal black sheep of the family.

"I didn't give them any of the potion, that was all them" The last part came out so quiet it was almost a whisper.

But then Harry did something completely out of character. He scooted over to where Ginny was sitting and put his arms around her in a tight embrace. "Thank you so much" he murmured so that only she could hear. "I can't imagine a better Valentine's day gift."


End file.
